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Third 9-11 anniversary a quiet one

Federal Way will be mostly quiet today, but one of its public libraries is participating in the September Project, a national effort to get people out into public places on the third anniversary of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center towers in New York City.

On the other side of the country, the U.S. House of Representatives read a resolution Thursday honoring the victims of the 9-11 attacks.

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, whose 9th District constituency includes Federal Way, is calling for bipartisan passage of the Sept. 11 Commissions recommendations as soon as possible.

Smith noted his district is home to one of the largest ports in Washington and two military bases. He said the legislation introduced in Congress earlier this week is critical for ensuring that Washington state, and the United States as a whole, are able to prevent future terrorist attacks.

Among the recommendations of the commission was better congressional oversight of intelligence, an integrated terrorist watch list, improved security at sea and air ports across the U.S., and the creation of a national intelligence director who will be in charge of all intelligence.

Former CIA director George Tenet and national security advisor Condoleeza Rice had a small piece of the intelligence pie, Smith said. This one person would be in charge of the whole pie. A lot of intelligence (before Sept. 11, 2001) was collected by lots of different agencies.

While the commission found no connection between the al-Qaeda terrorist network and Iraq, Smith said it would misguided to assume the war in Iraq is totally disconnected to the threat posed by terrorists.

Its wrong to say Iraq is directly linked to 9-11, but its also wrong to say Iraq has nothing to do with our goals in the war on terror, he said, adding that part of checking the proliferation of jihadist Muslims is supporting moderate Muslims.

Here at home, police and firefighters will read stories to children age 4 and older from 1:15 to 1:45 p.m

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